Tornado Alley Giant Screen Film Summative Evaluation

Tornado Alley is a giant screen adventure that follows renegade filmmaker Sean Casey and the scientists of VORTEX2, the largest tornado research project ever assembled, on their epic missions to encounter one of Earth’s most awe-inspiring events: the birth of a tornado. Program components included the giant screen film; a Web site; educators’ guides and resources for classroom and informal learning; and professional development sessions utilizing cyberinfrastructure to facilitate remote interactions between educators and researchers performing actual data manipulations. In addition, an outreach campaign allowed public audiences to experience, in person, the fascinating mobile tools of extreme weather research—including the armored Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV) and the NSF-funded Doppler on Wheels (DOW)—and to interact with the researchers who use and have contributed to the development of these pioneering technologies. Activities targeted public audiences at museums and science centers, as well as underserved, rural and tornado-affected populations, including Native American Indian reservations, through the use of a traveling digital 3D projection system. RMC Research Corporation conducted a summative evaluation to assess the impact of the project’s educational products, including the film, teacher’s guide and classroom material, as well as the project’s outreach efforts, including the scientist appearances and vehicle tour (at institutional venues and in underserved communities) and the professional development seminars for educators. The evaluation utilized a variety of instruments and methods to determine the project's effectiveness in achieving learning goals among intended audiences, as well as its broader impacts, including the effectiveness of the project elements as an outreach mechanism for the VORTEX 2 project; the success of the film’s dramatic approach in creating positive perceptions of science research and careers; and the effectiveness of outreach strategies in locating new venues for ISE learning and for facilitating interaction between researchers and ISE professionals.